DALLAS COUNTY, Mo. (KY3) — The Southern Dallas County Fire Protection District is conducting a survey to improve its firefighting efforts.

They scout homes that may be hard to reach in the event of a fire and plan to extinguish fires in those residences early.

“We recognized that there are numerous properties in our district, which is typical of any Rural Fire District, that may have an access issue. So rural firefighting, obviously, you don’t have fire hydrants and we have to bring in our own water, and we do that using tanker trucks that bring three to 4,000 gallons at a time,” said Chief Dave Moore. “Some of them actually have a winding driveway with trees that prohibit, you know, putting a tanker in there. So initially I used Google satellite to identify potentially difficult properties and I made a list of the ones that were obvious or that I couldn’t tell and started researching those properties to determine which ones needed to have a plan before arrival so we know where we’re headed if, God forbid, we get a house fire call there.”

Chief Moore says they are sending their plans to send to Buffalo so they will be ready if they are sent to one of those houses.

“In a structure fire, minutes count statistically every 30 seconds. A house fire doubles in size. So if we’re sitting there for five minutes trying to figure out what to do versus knowing what we need to do before we get there, it can make a big difference in saving the house,” Chief Moore said.

Chief Moore used Google Earth to locate those properties to determine if a property was difficult to access. Then he went out and scouted them if needed.

“Once we determine that the property is difficult to access or has special needs, we come up with a plan as to how many feet of large-diameter hose we would need to get, for example, from the road to the house, if, if there is room, some of them even have room to support a tanker, but only one at a time. So such notes will go into that property’s record at our dispatcher in Buffalo. And if, if there’s ever a fire call out there for a house fire, they’re going to relay that information to us as we’re responding to the station to pick up apparatus so we know what to do before we get there,” said . Chief Moore.

Chief Moore said long driveways, winding alleys or narrow access can prove difficult when fighting a fire. That’s why they need to know these things ahead of time.

“In the country here we don’t have hydrants so we have to bring our water one tank at a time and it’s imperative that there is enough space to get those vehicles in front of the site because a pump like this usually only holds 1000 gallons of water . An average house fire is 20,000 gallons of water. So it’s absolutely imperative that we can bring the apparatus to the fire,” said Chief Moore.

Chief Moore says no matter where you live, if you live in a rural area and think your property is difficult to access, ask the fire department to come out and take a look.

“My recommendation would be, if there’s a chance you have tight access or you don’t have room to turn the big tank trucks that are, you know, 35 feet, 40 feet long. In some cases, contact your local fire department. Have the Chief or Assistant Chief come out and survey your property. Hopefully they’ve already done it, but if not, ask them to come look at it and say, Yeah, we’ve got to come up with a plan here in case you ever have a house fire,” Chief Moore said.

Chief Moore also encourages local fire departments to conduct similar surveys in their neighborhoods. This helps you get to know your community and serve it better.

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